A school that closes takes away every child's right to have a space where they can learn and grow, both as individuals and as future members of society. After a century of resilience, history is about to prevail.
Jericho, 2025. The sun beats down on a light-brick building, the courtyard fills with laughter and shouts: for the students of the Terra Santa Franciscan School, it's recess time.
Jericho, 1932. The sun shines on the wooden planks under which the students of the Franciscan nuns seek shade and a bit of coolness. Soon, the school day will come to an end, and the huts that serve as classrooms will once again become the teachers' homes.
The Franciscan nuns' school in Jericho has stood for ninety-three years, witnessing the passage of time. Everything around the light-brick building has changed: students have come and gone, governments have shifted, wars, hopes, and blood have followed one another. The condition of the building has changed, as have the financial resources of the religious community that manages it; yet the school has remained, unmoved, from 1932 to today. Now, however, it is at risk of closing.
In 1932, Jericho—and all of Palestine—was under the British Mandate. As tensions and clashes between the local Arab population and waves of Jewish migration inflamed the country, the Franciscan missionary sisters arrived in Jericho and laid the first foundations of their future school. They used their own homes as classrooms—simple wooden huts that, by day, became spaces for education and refuge, reclaiming their domestic intimacy in the silence of the night.
Around the huts, the coming and going of girls and families transformed the school: year after year, the building evolved, until in 1964, it became the light-brick structure we see today. Meanwhile, the British Mandate had fallen, another world war had left an irreparable wound in the history of the Middle East and the world, and after the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war, the West Bank—including Jericho—was annexed to Jordan. Jericho thus became a Jordanian administrative center, while the number of Palestinian refugees settling in the area grew.
1964 was also the year the PLO was founded: while in Jericho, the Santa Maria school was taking shape, brick by brick, the Palestine Liberation Organization was beginning its armed struggle.
History moved swiftly: the Six-Day War, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, internal uprisings. And amid all this, individual stories unfolded. In 1987, as the First Intifada erupted, Yasmin learned to read aloud in class. As Nouf wrote the best essay in her class, Jericho came under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA). In 2004, in the midst of the bloodshed of the Second Intifada, the Jericho nuns' school expanded: thanks to funding, four new classrooms were added on the school's rooftop, increasing the capacity to accommodate up to 500 students.
Pro Terra Sancta's commitment began in 2021 when the Covid-19 pandemic deepened economic and social wounds worldwide, including in Jericho and the West Bank. Jobs became scarce, families could no longer afford school fees, and the nuns chose not to give up. They chose to fight a silent battle with the weapons of perseverance, education, inclusivity, and hospitality.
Today, these problems are far from resolved:
"Families here face many difficulties due to closures and restrictions on obtaining work permits in Israel, which makes it impossible for them to find stable sources of income. Many families also have a large number of children, making it even harder to cover household expenses."
These are the words of the school's current principal:
"Today, we have about 600 students—around a hundred in kindergarten and the rest in elementary school. It is not easy to cover all expenses."
For a long time, families have had no stable income due to movement restrictions, war, and the complete absence of tourism:
"I have heard many difficult stories that families share with me," the principal explains. "After October 7, many of them could no longer pay their debts, creating an even more critical economic situation. Jericho used to be a renowned tourist destination, but since the war began, tourists have stopped coming, tourism businesses have closed, and many workers have been laid off."
A school, standing still yet bearing witness to nearly a century of history, is now at risk of closing. A school that closes takes away every child's right to have a place to learn and grow as an individual and as a future member of society. After a century of resilience, history is about to prevail.
Help us prevent this from happening: contribute to the annual tuition of a child in Jericho!
